Laptop for Software Engineering course - £350 max

Daftbrown · 25 Apr 2018 at 15:11

Hi

I'm asking on behalf of a bloke at work. I don't really follow the laptop scene, and I'm especially bad at the low budget end of things...

His son is starting a Software Engineering degree course in September. Some of you IT professionals will probably have a fair idea what that entails though I do not... Apparently some CAD will be involved.

Aside from studies and coursework the computer would not be used for gaming / media centre etc...

Can a laptop be found at £350 or less that would be able to run whatever might be required on a Software Engineering course? If so, what would you recommend?

Thanks in advance, from me, "bloke at work"... and his son

hyperseven · 25 Apr 2018 at 15:27

Outlet of Dell?

Daftbrown · 25 Apr 2018 at 16:06

I'll have a look, cheers.

My issue is that I'm not sure what processing power might be required by the Software Engineering degree side of things, especially at the given budget.

bremen1874 · 25 Apr 2018 at 16:18

I'd be more concerned about the screen size/resolution.

PiKe · 25 Apr 2018 at 16:21

CAD without a dedicated GPU? Have fun with that one

bremen1874 · 25 Apr 2018 at 16:30

In institution offering the course should be able to provide guidance.

Daftbrown · 25 Apr 2018 at 19:23

bremen1874 said:
In institution offering the course should be able to provide guidance.

This is true. Just thought I'd try to help the fella, as he asked.

escape sanity · 27 Apr 2018 at 09:58

Definitely check with the institution. I would be surprised if a software engineering course required use of CAD. CAD is for designing physical objects which software engineers don't really do.

If they do not need CAD then the biggest requirement is probably memory for running IDEs and VMs. You could probably get an old Thinkpad with 8GB in that price range.

Daftbrown · 27 Apr 2018 at 11:18

escape sanity said:
Definitely check with the institution. I would be surprised if a software engineering course required use of CAD. CAD is for designing physical objects which software engineers don't really do.

If they do not need CAD then the biggest requirement is probably memory for running IDEs and VMs. You could probably get an old Thinkpad with 8GB in that price range.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

I really wanted to give my colleague good advice but wasn't certain I could do so myself, which is why I reached out here. The trouble there is that you guys are on the end of this particular chain of information / misinformation. I've tried to get as much info as I can from the prospective student's father but I'm not convinced he knows what the course entails, which is ultimately why I've echoed that he should ask the university for their recommendations. Perhaps I'll return to this thread once that's established.

Again, thanks all for your input.

MrRockliffe · 27 Apr 2018 at 11:20

Honestly, they probably won't need it. Most universities, if not all, will have plenty of PCs available that are more than capable of running the required programmes.

Here at Loughborough, we have a library full of them, and an additional 15 or so (at least) computer rooms across the campus with 30 computers each.

For CAD, £350 isn't much for a laptop.

However, CAD is generally an engineer's programme - can't imaging someone in the computing area would need to use it. You'd need to know a few engineering principles to do so.